Haydn: The Creation, Popp/Rolfe Johnson/LPO and Choir

Thursday 9 February 2006 19.03 EST
First published on Thursday 9 February 2006 19.03 EST

Legendary East German conductor Klaus Tennstedt was primarily associated with the music of Mahler, though he was also a remarkable Haydn interpreter if this astonishing performance of The Creation is anything to go by.

The source is a BBC broadcast from the Festival Hall in 1984. Some will doubtless nowadays prefer period instruments and smaller forces in the piece, though Tennstedt is equalled by few in his ability to sustain the requisite mood of devotional wonder and dramatic suspense.

The playing and choral singing are consistently thrilling, while the lineup of soloists - Lucia Popp, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and Benjamin Luxon - has rarely been bettered. There's a certain amount of extraneous noise, always a danger with live recordings, but worth putting up with in order to hear what was clearly an exceptional achievement.